EXXONMOBIL

Showing off real products and experiences in virtual reality

THE PRODUCT

Working alongside Myriad Global Media we present an app to Showcase 360° videos, in VR.

The brief was pretty simple. Exxonmobil needed an app for an exhibition in which they would show off their services and some products. The apps were to later make it into the App Store both on Google Play and iTunes.

Users needed to be able to use the app with a Google Cardboard headset, and also holding the phone in a virtual window scenario. We also made versions to demo using the Samsung Gear VR.

View VR Videos using headsets

Use your phone as a virtual window

Stream, or download the experiences

OBJECTIVES

The objective was to create an app that follows the strict brand guidelines of Exxonmobil, be ready and tested within a six week period, on all platforms. We also needed to consider streaming platforms and hosting the video to download directly to the device.

THE SOLUTION

The product is pretty straight forward, an on-brand application, with a list of videos users can select. We created two menus within the app, one for users to interact with by touch, the second is within the headset mode so users can navigate without removing the headset.

TECHNICAL & UX CONSIDERATIONS

The most technical aspect of this application was the streaming. Working with Exxon directly on the exploration of suitable streaming platforms and finding the best solution.

The in-headset menu also needed to be thought through as users may want to pause, change and exit headset mode without the availability of any input buttons at all.

Videos are regularly added and changed in the app, so we built a framework to easily add and remove videos. Also the streaming links of the videos are changed sporadically, so we built a very simple web-service to allow the URL’s to be changed without having to submit any app updates.